Oscar Films See Financial Bump After Ceremony

Every year after the votes have been tallied and the winners announced at the Oscars, the films granted recognition in the form of a Best Picture nomination see a bump in their box office grosses.  Last year this has held true for nominees from years past, and this year is no different.  After taking home five awards (including best picture, best actor, and best director) The Artist was added to an additional 790 theaters and cracked the top 10 highest grossing films of last weekend with $3.4 million (according to Box Office Mojo).  While this bump in it’s domestic box office is might lead to The Artist increasing it’s total domestic intake to $45 million, it is down considerably from last years winner The Kings Speech, which went on to make $120 million domestically.  While The Artist is enjoying its post-Oscar success, other films at the awards are finding their success in a new way.  Best Picture nominees The Help, Moneyball, and the recently released Hugo, are finding their way to new viewers thanks to Video On Demand (VOD) services like Netflix, Amazon Video, and Itunes.  Hugo raced to the top of the download charts this week following its release and The Help and Moneyball can be found within the top 20 downloads despite being released a few months ago.  This may be what is attributing to the lack of box office success of these Oscar nominees.  With The Help being the only one of the three to break expectations in the box office, this trend of forgoing a trip to the theater and watching from the comfort of ones own home speaks to recent viewing patterns.  It is because of this that future Best Picture nominees should not be judged by their box office intake, but perhaps by their home consumption.